Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara West

I thought Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara West sounded intriguing. Magical tattoos appearing on the main character that are somehow connected with strange deaths and magic? Sounds like a good time, but wrong.

This book's plot was very confusing and the main character was the least interesting and most moronic character of the bunch. By the end of the novel, I was completely uninterested in pursuing the rest of the series, even to give the novelist a second chance with book two (which is something I would normally do). Please pass this one by, its simply not worth your time.

Kaylin, the main character, is a member of the military group known as the Hawks. She grew up in the ghetto of the city, but has since learned to read, speak a few languages, and fight. Many years ago, when she lived in the ghetto, something strange happened to her. There were a series of strange deaths that involved children and at the same time weird tattoos appeared on her body by magic. She thought what ever it was, was over but its beginning again. Can Kaylin figure out what is happening and stop it before more children die? You will have to read the book to find out.

This plot sounds simple but don't be fooled. Intermix in this plot is the conflict between different races including a race of winged people, of dragons, and of leotine (or lion people) and Barranti (think something like a Tolkien elf). We also have politics, social and military, and back story from Kaylin's past and random events that just don't seem to make sense in any of it. It was quite a mess, it read like the author didn't know what story to tell first. Or she wanted to see how many characters could be shoved unnecessarily into a book (perhaps to make up for her main character).

Characters: Her main character Kaylin is nothing special. A human that something weird happens to in the midst of all these other interesting characters. There is nothing about Kaylin that makes her stand out to me, she is temperamental, she is never on time (a point that is emphasized over and over), the people she works with generally like her but I don't know why. She isn't all that smart (seems she failed a lot of her classes) and she isn't all that savvy or interesting. She doesn't really have any special skills. She is in a word, boring. The only thing of note about her is what is happening to her. Now the other characters on the other hand are quite fascinating, I love the idea of bird people and lion people. Those characters were quite developed with attitudes, languages, families and everything. Svern, who is a wolf (another military unit) and lent to the Hawks for this "mission" is a human friend of Kaylin's with a past. He is much, much more interesting and well developed then Kaylin, as is the Dragon who also accompanies them on their quest. If supporting characters could carry a novel, this book would be it. But alas, Kaylin so disappoints that her friends can't save her.

I found the writing style hard to read and slow to read. I didn't really care for Sagara West's style at all. It didn't flow all that well nor did it keep me that captivated. She needed to organize the plot and back story better so that they didn't get in the way of each of so much and lead to so much confusion. And there were random events that could have been dropped from the plot to stream line it a bit. I am not opposed to confusing plots with lots of characters but this novel was a lot of bother to get no where. Maybe if there were a stronger main character in the middle of it, it wouldn't have been so bad.

Overall I would give this book a pass. Its a shame such a great fantasy world has to go to waste. But Cast in Shadows' plot is confusing and the main character is terrible. There has got to be something better to read out there.